Nine Patch Quilt

For today's post I decided to share with you a gift I made for my sister...it's my take on the nine patch quilt. We promised each other that we would make a quilt for one another and exchange. Yeah, well, they were supposed to be fall quilts but we both became super busy. However, the quilt did make it to her for the winter season and that makes me happy! Here it is...

I wish I felt comfortable showing you a close-up of it, but I'm afraid I made too many errors when creating this quilt. So, just enjoy it from afar (as it is meant to be enjoyed). The material was, to me at least, an assortment of fall colors. I do think it will still work for the winter/holiday season as I added a lot of reds and greens to the mix. I was also trying to create a nice symmetry between the lighter and darker patches. A cautionary tale must be made, however. When sewing small squares line them up in rows of the width of your fabric and then cut them out (here's a good place to go for help on this issue ehow). The biggest problem with this quilt is that I had squares already cut out from a previous project and thought I was 'that' good...I wasn't, sadly. 

This quilt also needs better edging, but as luck would have it my sewing machine crashed and burned before I could put any borders around the sides. I think fate is telling someone to buy me an expensive sewing machine for christmas (any takers?). The great thing about the nine patch quilt is that it is fairly easy for beginners and there are endless possibilities. I have only been sewing for two years now and was able to design my own quilt using the basic principles for this pattern.